With the exception of Vladimir Putin, Yevgeny Prigozhin, and some Kremlin hardliners, everyone wants peace in Ukraine, with the country retaining its sovereignty. But what is a nation to do when a foreign power invades its territory in an effort to erase not only its borders, but also its language and culture, particularly when that country systematically kidnaps children for the purposes of reprogramming their memories? The answer is quite simple: Bravely defend the homeland by repelling the invaders.

Over the last year, Americans have witnessed the Ukrainians turn what was supposed to be a three-day Russian route into a standoff, or better. While Russia has significantly damaged Ukraine’s infrastructure and committed war crimes against its civilian population, by all accounts, the Ukrainians have inflicted significant casualties on the Russian army as the Ukrainians push back the attacks and humiliate the Russians, with countless Russian commanders dying in the field and Russian government officials and oligarchs who don’t toe the line losing their balance while standing next to open windows.

At first, the American people were overwhelmingly supportive of the Ukrainians, with little opposition to President Biden’s requests for and grants of military aid to Ukraine. But as is unfortunately the case in the era of Trump, Woke, Counter-Woke, and division, that unanimity did not hold. Last week, a poll showed that public support for Ukraine had dropped to 48%.

Trump’s America First crowd wants to close its eyes to what is going on in an interconnected world, fancifully claiming that the oceans provide sufficient protection. Those who distrust government now argue that the United States was behind a 2014 coup in Ukraine that sought to isolate Russia. And by the way, the U.S. employed Nazis to assist its effort. Republican politicians pandering to their base argue that President Biden should have visited East Palestine, Ohio rather than Kiev, pitting foreign diplomacy against the struggling rust-belt communities--as if foreign policy and domestic responses to tragedy are mutually exclusive.

Today, ordinarily disparate forces came together in Washington, D.C. on the front steps of the Lincoln Memorial to outline their demands: (i) dissolve NATO; (ii) severely limit (or as we now say, defund) Defense Department spending; (iii) free Julian Assange; (iv) and last but not least, end military aid to Ukraine. The gathering carried the moniker Rage Against the War Machine.

Among the sponsors were the Libertarian Party and the People’s Party. A number of speakers reminded those who gathered that the crowd comprised people from all sides of the political spectrum. Over 25 speakers highlighted the diversity of political perspectives underlying the one overarching goal—end war.

In principle, I applaud an anti-war message, but the vast majority of the people speaking today are living in a non-existent, utopian world. Nuclear weapons, powerful armies, oligarch-inspired power grabs, military adventuresome, ethnic cleansing, and a host of other evils will not disappear simply because the Western alliance disarms, as was called for by today’s speakers and demonstrators.

Again, I can’t disagree with one recurring sentiment voiced today: We must get out of our silos and look for what we have in common. Probably the most impactful variation on that theme came from a young man standing in front of the White House following the march from the Lincoln Memorial to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. With a Trump red hat on his head and bullhorn in hand, he acknowledged that many of his fellow demonstrators probably found his views abhorrent, but that “our” common humanity should bring “us” together in an effort to stop nuclear war.

Popular youTuber Jimmy Dore (1,115,000 subscribers) was lucky enough to have a speaking role at the rally, giving him the opportunity to deliver the same message. Dore, however, started by first raising the specter of Nazis in Ukraine, as well as (facetiously?) claiming that U.S. could have bought a “Mount Kilimanjaro’s worth of blow for [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy” with the $100 million it has spent on Ukraine.

Dore eventually made his main point by first noting the nearby statue of Albert Einstein honoring Einstein’s work in physics, work which Dore claims Einstein came to regret—Einstein issued a statement regarding his involvement with the development of the atomic bomb that strikes me as more nuanced than Dore’s recap of Einstein’s position (although Einstein. could have made other statements that I am unaware of). Then Dore asserted that, “[The military industrial complex] took Einstein’s discovery and used it to melt the skin of Japanese civilians,” conveniently ignoring the number of deaths that a U.S. invasion of Japan would have produced.

At this point, Dore acknowledged the divisions that kept many away from today’s rally — “Hey, I want to help stop a nuclear war, but not with those people” — and added, “I get it; I am the same way.” Dore then drove his point home, recalling, “My house caught on fire a couple of months ago, but when the fireman showed up. I was like ‘Wow Wow, what’s your views on Social Security and Medicare? . . . I know my house is burning down, but are you vaxxed? . . . I need to know what your position is on gender affirming surgery.’” He continued, “And [the firefighters standing there], looking at me like I am fucking crazy. . . . Save the nitpicking for Whole Foods. . . . You have to work with people who you disagree with . . . because we need each other to survive.” After those sage words, he returned to the oligarchy and military industrial complex.

The best speaker of the day, Tulsi Gabbard, made a similar point in harkening back to January 13, 2018, when the people of Hawaii received a warning that a ballistic missile attack was imminent, causing widespread panic, particularly when the warning ominously concluded, “This is not a drill.” Gabbard emphasized that at that moment, everyone was in the same boat. I honor Gabbard as the “best” because her speech was focused and professionally delivered. And unlike many of the other speakers, she knows how to dress when she is standing in front of a crowd—orange really pops against a blue sky.

But plenty of speakers chose to live in a world filled with conspiracies as far-fetched as those espoused by the QAnon acolytes. Take Diane Sare, a 2024 candidate for a United States Senate seat from New York, who: (i) for inflammatory effect, claimed that the Dulles Brothers protected Nazis in the U.S.’s postwar efforts; (ii) referred to the lie of the magic bullet that killed President John F. Kennedy; (iii) implied that Malcolm X, Robert Kennedy, and Martin Luther King were all killed by the same assassin—the CIA, a conspiracy of oligarchs, or some other figure in the shadows?; and (iv) raised the specter that 9/11 was NOT perpetrated by a guy with kidney disease who resided in a cave located in Afghanistan. By negative implication, does that mean the U.S. government took down the Towers and crashed a plane into the Pentagon? Implicit in the statements of Sare and other speakers is a belief in some overarching conspiracy between the military and American oligarchs to control the world for profit, which is nothing more than a variation on Donald Trump’s deep-state fantasy.

Her paranoia was readily apparent at the outset of her remarks, when she said, “I am pleased that we have smoked out hundreds of FBI agents and thousands of nafo trolls just by sticking together to oppose our nation from plunging us into the abyss of thermonuclear war.” If she was implying that the FBI agents and nafo (apparently, North Atlantic Fellas Organization) trolls were in the crowd, then they made up the vast majority of those attending the rally, at least if her numbers are correct.

Tara Reads, one of the more high profile speakers, has claimed that President Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 when she was employed as a staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office. Setting aside the veracity of her claim, how is she qualified to speak on foreign policy matters? It is not clear that she even holds an undergraduate degree—the college in question says she never graduated. In her speech, she referred to U.S. aid to Ukraine as a “money-laundering scheme,” adding, “This is about the Western empire that has basically used the military industrial complex and weaponized it to these endless wars.” She then celebrated Julian Assange.

Dan Cohen, an award-winning documentary filmmaker, asserted: “People who participate in rallies like this can be cut off from your bank accounts.” He claimed that the United States is preparing for war in Haiti, with recent Canadian military activities paving the way. Cohen also took on the military-industrial complex, which, according to him, includes Pfizer and Moderna; “the bio-pharma complex is inseparable from the military-industrial complex.” Cohen went even further, telling the assembled that, “We have to understand that the Covid-19 response lockdowns and experimental injections were deadly war measures imposed against us by the Pentagon.”

As for Ukraine, Cohen, claims, “responsibility for this war is not in Moscow; it is here in Washington. . . . Russia didn’t expand west; Nato expanded east up to Russia’s border.” According to Cohen, “The once sovereign state of Ukraine has been made a subsidiary of Silicon Valley giants Amazon, Google, and Microsoft.” Technocratic dictatorship is the end game, “with the ruling class seeking to implement the ultimate form of control over our minds and bodies, and Ukraine is the laboratory.” All of this in Cohen’s mind, constitutes “technocratic fascism.”

The final in-person speaker of the day was Ron Paul. (After Paul, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters delivered a short speech from Switzerland via pre-recorded video.) Much to the crowd’s pleasure, Paul trotted out his demand that the Federal Reserve be eliminated. Apparently, there would be no war if there were no Fed or government debt. There are plenty of economists who adhere to the Keynesian and Monetarist schools of thought who vehemently disagree with Paul.

The organizers offered two musical reprieves from the verbal onslaught: Nellie McKay sang an updated version of Country Joe McDonald’s I’m Fixing to Die, which itself is an updated version of the 1926 jazz classic, Muskrat Ramble, co-written by Kid Ory. George Harrison would have loved the ukulele. Later, Tatiana Moroz and Jordan Page sang three songs that ran for 25 minutes. I am not rushing out to buy their single.

Throughout the day, I heard plenty of references to vaccines, mask mandates, Hunter Biden, the Nord Stream II sabotage, and weather balloons. At least the speakers are up on current events.

But what really stood out was the anemic size of the crowd. At best, 2,000 people attended—and that is being charitable. While that number exceeds those at many demonstrations that I photograph in Chicago’s Federal Plaza, this demonstration took place on hallowed ground. The Lincoln Memorial brings back memories of Martin Luther King’s August 28, 1963 speech, which drew an estimated 250,000 people, as well as the March on the Pentagon protest against the Vietnam War on October 21, 1967 that drew an estimated 100,000 people. And then there was President Barack Obama’s pre-inaugural concert on January 17, 2009 that drew an estimated 400,000 people. To put it simply, nobody should hold a demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial unless they can turn out tens of thousands of demonstrators. The mental images etched in our collective memory prove devastating when the numbers come up short.

Keep in mind that George Washington University’s campus is just a 15-minute walk from the Lincoln Memorial. Its student population numbers just over 27,000. Georgetown University is not much farther away. It claims a student population of just under 21,000. Yet, I saw very few people in the crowd who were in their early twenties. The crowd skewed older, with a fair number of baby boomers reliving their Sixties memories. In sum, Congress may eventually curtail aid to Ukraine, but the numbers standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial will not be the precipitating factor.

Despite the sparse turnout, the organizers did an excellent job staging the event. I was not surprised. By dumb luck, my hotel appeared to be what might be dubbed the “official” hotel for the march. Last night, I walked into what might best be described as the “breakfast room” on the hotel’s ground floor, finding some of the organizers working on last minute details, as well as instructing volunteers to stay clear of anticipated counter-protesters. Of course, that put me on notice to look for confrontations. Over the course of eight or so hours, I encountered only one counter-demonstrator—a young guy on a bicycle just south of the White House holding the now familiar blue and yellow Ukrainian flag. He was anything but threatening. I was disappointed—a good rumble would benefited by photographic efforts.

As usual, I have a suggestion should there be a second go-around. Pick the speakers, and then cut the list in half. There was far too much repetition. Moreover, even though a gentleman faithfully held up “2-Minute,” and “30-Second” warning signs, many speakers ignored his cues. Discipline should have been enforced with a hook.

While I understand the urge to march to the White House, the effort was pointless for two reasons. First, (as I learned the next day), President Biden was already on his way to Ukraine. Second, the White House does not make for a good photo-op unless the organizers choreograph it. A herd of people milling about on Pennsylvania Avenue does not yield a memorable image, particularly at dusk, unless they are lined up with signs held high facing Lafayette Park (their backs to the White House).

No surprise here: Going forward, those behind Rage Against the War Machine should eschew all the paranoid conspiracy theories for a more factually-based presentation. From a macro-perspective, many of the speakers and attendees offer an important counterpoint that should at least cause everyone to reflect on the implications that come with the United States’ commitment to Ukraine, but the paranoia obscures the overriding message.

[Click on an Image to Enlarge It]

Photographer’s Note. Some woman who had her iPhone mounted to a flimsy tripod accusingly said to me, “You must be in everybody’s video and pictures because I never saw someone who moved around like you.” Nope, you dipshit. I was on my knees when i moved laterally across the space where the television cameras were filming from. I crossed the stage area by the fencing far in back of the speakers, just as the organizers and other photographers did. I always made sure to stay out of the sightlines of other photographers and the video crews, and I kept moving to avoid blocking the views of demonstrators. I was there to capture images, not record an event that was being professionally recorded and simulcast. For the record, this woman was fixed in one place for the entire rally, blocking other photographers. An idiot, but at least she said, “You must be with Getty Images.” I’ll take that as a compliment.

Copyright 2023, Jack B. Siegel. All Rights Reserved. Do Not Alter, Copy, Display, Distribute, Download, Duplicate, or Reproduce Without the Prior Written Consent of the Copyright Holder.